Posts filed under 'Organic'
November 12th, 2009
While the hard freeze may have wiped out a lot of veggies, the activities of the Local Foods Work Group continue apace. In October I went to the national conference of the Community Food Security Coalition in Des Moines with Margaret Larson, director of our county’s Extension office. Over 600 people attended, all with an interest in local foods, but from so many different angles, including food policy, agriculture policy, just treatment of farm workers, academics, nutritionists, economists, farmers, food pantries, farm-to-cafeteria programs, and neighborhood revitalization. One highlight was the speech by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, about exciting changes that are afoot at the U.S.D.A. We returned to Rockford with our heads full of ideas for new projects that we’ll start to tackle over the winter.On December 10, 2009, our group will host a showing of the movie Fresh as part of Terra Madre Day. First, the movie: it’s a new documentary that celebrates farmers, consumers, and business people nationwide who are reimagining and transforming our country’s food system. “Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.” (www.FreshTheMovie.com) It’s been shown in Chicago and Madison, as well as at numerous film festivals, and now it will finally be coming to our area. For details on the showing, check the Extension’s website at web.extension.uiuc.edu/winnebago.Terra Madre Day is being organized by Slow Food International to promote access to good, clean, and fair food; agricultural biodiversity; small-scale food production; environmentally responsible food production; and fair and sustainable trade. Groups around the world will be hosting events including communal meals, excursions to producers, and film and cultural events. While we’ll enjoy the movie in our own community, we’ll also be part of something much larger. Think globally, act locally, as they say.In response to a desire in the community to learn more about local foods, our Local Foods Work Group will host a symposium on Saturday, March 20, 2010 in Rockford. The keynote speaker will be Terra Brockman, founder of The Land Connection (a group that promotes community-based food systems in the Midwest) and author of a new book, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm. Several breakout sessions will also be offered. Things are still in the planning stages, but mark your calendar and check the Extension’s website for updates.Speaking of updates, winter is also the time when we review the northern Illinois local foods directory to be sure that all the information is current. If you or a local producer you know would like to be included, contact the Extension office or visit the website. There is no charge to be listed, as the aim is to support local growers and producers, as well as to help folks find local sources for a wide variety of foods. Whether you’re looking for veggies, fruit, meat, eggs, honey, maple syrup, or grains, you won’t have to go far for local goodness.
October 28th, 2009
… You can make a day trip to Champaign for Organic Gardening Day.
There will be five educational sessions, with special emphasis on herb growing, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Hawthorn Hotel and Suites.
In addition to the speakers, you can find gardening products for sale and dine on an organic lunch.
Registration of $59 must be received by Nov. 13. Contact Tracey Malkovich at 217-333-3420 or malkovic@illinois.edu.
August 31st, 2009
So how much U.S. cropland is farmed organically? Less than 1 percent, according to the USDA.
I learned this in Time’s recent story about the environmental price of cheap food. If you don’t read the whole thing, here is its message in a nutshell.
We don’t have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an élitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don’t take care of your land, it can’t take care of you.
Each week on this blog, you can learn more from local experts and farmers about eating locally.
August 27th, 2009
The Illinois Food Farms & Jobs Bill was passed on August 18, 2009.
This law creates the Illinois Local Food, Farms and Jobs Council, which will work with state agencies, Illinois businesses, organizations, and citizens to build a fully functioning local farm and food system in Illinois. It will open new avenues of entrepreneurship, and we are grateful for the opportunities. This legislation will begin a long overdue transformation of our communities. There are plenty of business opportunities to go around.
Believe it or not, an estimated $46 billion of our money flows out of our state for food each year. Even if the number is off a bit, that’s no small potatoes. Currently, Illinois produces approximately 4% of the food we consume. The goal is to increase that to 10% by 2020 and 20% by 2030. The greatest natural resource in Illinois is our soil. It’s among the best in the world, and is absolutely irreplaceable.
People are needed to grow specialty crops, and workers will be needed to harvest and process the products. Engineers are needed to design and build equipment for those specialty crops. There will be an endless need for modern, reasonably priced, small scale equipment, and people to weld, paint, repair, and sell it.
Distribution hubs are also desperately needed. These will have to be built, furnished, and staffed. Other needs include farm co-ops that meet the needs of diversified growers; specialty crop advisors; and Illinois-specific seed and plant production, plus plant breeding work.
Value-added product development for the local food industry will offer quite a bit of work, including labeling, packaging, publicizing, and marketing these products. Suppliers of soil amendments will find an up tick in work. This could even be the start of diverting some of the organic material that ends up in our landfills, back to farms.
Financial advisors specializing in the local foods industry will be needed. And don’t forget all those farmers who will need to add infrastructure like buildings, storage, and equipment to their farms in order to diversify their cropping systems.
Different industries are specifically mentioned in the legislation, including agri-tourisim, which is already popular in some parts of America and abroad. People want to visit farms to connect with the source of their food. One area farmer, David Cleverdon of Kinnickinnick Farm, is already trying to do this.
The cosmetic/healthcare industry is on the list, along with dairy products and eggs. The fiber industry could see innovations in sustainable fabrics, dye, design, and production. Fish and forestry products include Christmas trees, wood, syrup, mushrooms, and nuts. Fifteen different grains are listed, plus herbs, honey, meat, ornamental plants, recreation, and renewable energy. How about some beer made with local grain?
To read the legislation, visit www.foodfarmsjobs.org. I think this may be the road back to the land of milk and honey, bread and roses.
August 3rd, 2009
But most people buy organic because to avoid pesticide residue, antibiotics and environmental damages done by conventionally grown food. Or because they prefer its freshness and taste.
I say this because a new British study concludes that organic food is not nutritionally superior, based on the review of studies over the last half-century.
From USA TODAY:
Organic producers say the study misses the big point about why consumers are increasingly turning to foods grown without chemicals or drugs.
“We don’t dispute what they found. We don’t make health claims based on the nutrition of organic food. But we are saying they contain less of the things that might hurt, like chemicals,” Laura Telford, national director of Canadian Organic Growers, told The National Post. “You can make credible claims about the benefits of organic food without saying they are nutritionally superior.”
According to the Organic Trade Association, as reported by U.S. News and World Report, sales of organic products grew 17 percent in 2008, bringing in $24.6 billion.
Generally, if you’re going to go organic, it’s with these “dirty dozen” that are most likely to be contaminated:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Bell peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Grapes
11. Carrots
12. Pears
June 26th, 2009
If you missed the Openfields Dinner at the Celtic Thistle on Sunday night, you missed a lovely evening. It was filled with the most mouthwatering steaks I’ve seen in years, thanks to Tom Eickman of Eickman’s Processing in Seward. And the dessert was to die for, with strawberries picked lovingly from Harrison Market Garden by Jill and Bill Beyer. Succulent jewels ladled over a puff of meringue.
If you weren’t in attendance, don’t fret, as there will be more opportunities. The next Openfields dinner featuring local foods will be on July 18 at Pine Row Farm in Roscoe, with catering by Kiki B’s and A Movable Feast. Other local foods dinners will be held on July 23 at Octane and August 6 at Brio, plus more opportunities to finish out the summer and head into fall. All of these dinners are being planned to take advantage of the bounty of what is in season.
An Openfields dinner is as much about enjoying the company of kindred spirits as it is about the mouthwatering local food. It is an opportunity to meet new people, and exchange ideas and philosophies, as well as recipes. It is an ancient ritual repeated in a modern world. Bread and wine shared amongst a diverse and growing clan.
Now that we’ve considered the wine, on to the weather! Rain, rain, rain, and more rain. There are springs seeping upward through the earth in my fields. More springs than anyone can remember, and it is a good thing that hope springs eternal, as well. We keep planting, while some things grow and thrive and others rot in the rich dark soil that had been so productive in previous years. Ah, the life of a farmer!
The beauty of local food is that it is the tie that binds. It binds the farmer to the community, and it binds the community back to the earth. Those ties have been severed for decades and we have the ability to respond…responsibility… to recreate those frayed threads. To create anew a system that will sustain and nourish not just our bodies, but, our minds and our souls.
Raise your glass to a new paradigm, and join us as we celebrate a new understanding. To make reservations to join us at future Openfields dinners, visit web.extension.uiuc.edu/winnebago or phone the University of Illinois Extension Winnebago County office at (815) 986-4357. Andrea Hazzard is the Farmer at Hazzard Free Farm, partner in First Hand Harvest CSA and the Local Food Systems Coordinator for Winnebago County
June 17th, 2009
That’s what Karen King says about the Holistic Health Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at her store, Choices Natural Market, 6551 E Riverside Blvd., Rockford.
According to her press release: It will feature more than 30 alternative health practitioners from around the area, including acupuncturists, chiropractors and massage therapists. There will be music, food and yoga. You can watch bees make honey, talk to farmers, sample raw organic foods, take part in a clay therapy session or do Tai Chi.
For more information, call 815-282-1861 or visit choicesnaturalmarket.com.
May 8th, 2009
Spring has arrived, and the excitement of a new season surrounds us. Our farm is brimming with little seedlings that are anxiously waiting to be planted. We are busily preparing our planting beds to accommodate them, spreading compost, mulching, pulling the weeds that do no belong — all to assure a bountiful season.
In recent years, there has been a renaissance of small, local farms, many of which are following organic or sustainable farming methods, or using alternate means to produce food for local markets. Farmers sell their products at local farmers markets, through community supported agriculture (CSAs), local grocers, and local restaurants. Customers can meet the person who is responsible for growing the food that they enjoy, and can develop a relationship with that farmer. It is important to know who grows your food, to be able to understand how the food was grown.
Lately, the “green” concept has been everywhere around us. This is wonderful to see, but it can be overwhelming for many people. Sometimes it seems that one must change many things in one’s life to make a difference: buy organic, buy local, go green for everything one does, or not at all. But people can make a huge impact by changing just one thing, one day a week, for themselves and the environment. For example, if you use a to-go mug for your coffee instead of a disposable paper cup four mornings each week, this will save 208 cups over the course of one year.
Or, consider dedicating one meal a week to local and/or organic products. It may not seem like much, but it could have a significant impact on the local food system by providing a market for area farmers. After a while, you can try expanding to two or even three meals per week. The secret to changing anything in one’s life is to start small. Each month, or sometimes each week, we would try something different. A different grocer, a different type of food, organic instead of conventional, local instead of industrial. At first it was a struggle, and took a lot of planning and time to make these changes. However, it was a great adventure to learn how to cook again with basic ingredients, and discover local businesses.
At the end of the day, I think all of us can learn something from the “Go Green” campaign. Even if you feel that it is not for you, or you do not want to make those changes in your life, go out and enjoy some of the events throughout the summer that are part of this movement. Visit a farmer’s market, a farm tour, or a local restaurant that serves local produce. Enjoy the bounty of the harvest, and meet the people behind the food. After tasting a delicious heirloom tomato or an artisan loaf of bread, you just might be swayed into the romance of enjoying the harvest in the end.
March 24th, 2009
If you’ve gone organic in the kitchen but want to do so in the yard, consider this workshop from the University of Illinois Extension-Winnebago County.
“The Basics: Organic Weed and Pest Control for Vegetables and Small Fruits” will be from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, at its office, 1925 S. Meridian Road, Rockford. Cost is $10. Register by March 30 with that link or call 815-986-4357.
March 16th, 2009
Translation: What would Hammy the Hamster eat?
For a little humor in your day, watch this YouTube video of a hamster choosing between organic and conventional food.
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